Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
This is a Psalm which they have improvised ; by means of which they fancy they thus sing the praises of all the mysteries of their Error.6
1 A lacuna in the Codex which is thus completed by S. and C.
2 Cf. Is. xl. 15.
3 That is, Messiah-ites, or Anointed-ones.
4 C£ 1 Sam. xvi. 13.
6 1 Sam. x. 1.
6 The text of this Hymn is in places very corrupt ; I have followed Cruice's emendations mostly. Schneidewin, for some reason or other which he does not state, omits it bodily from his Latin translation.
J.1 "First [was there] Mind the Generative2 Law of All;3
Second to the Firstborn was Liquid Chaos ;
Third Soul through toil received the Law.
Wherefore, with a deer's * form surrounding her,
She labours at her task beneath Death's rule.
Now, holding sway,5 she sees the Light ;
And now, cast into piteous plight, she weeps ;
Now she weeps, and now rejoices ;
Now she weeps, and now is judged ;
Now is judged, and now she dieth ;
Now is born, with no way out for her ; in misery
She enters in her wandering the labyrinth of ills.
(? C. — And Jesus 6 said) : 0 Father, see !
[Behold] the struggle still of ills on earth !
1 This attribution may be thought by some to be questionable ; but as it is far more similar to the thought-sphere of J. than to that of C., I have so assigned it. It belonged to the same circles to which we must assign the sources of J.
2 ffviKbs — perhaps "general" simply.
3 Or, of the Whole.
4 The Codex has e\a<f>ov, which, with Miller, we correct into t\d<f>ov. Is this a parallel with the " lost sheep " idea ? Can it possibly connect with the conception underlying the phrases on the golden tablets found in tombs of " Orphic " initiates, on the territory of ancient Sybaris : " A kid thou hast fallen into the milk" ("Timpone grande" Tablet a, Naples Museum, Kaibel, C.I.Q.I.S., 642); and, "A kid I have fallen into milk" ("Campagno" Tablet a, ibid., 641, and Append., p. 668)? But this connection is very hazy ; it more probably suggests the nebris or "fawn-skin" of the Bacchic initiates (see my Orpheus, "The Fawn-skin," pp. 243 ff., for an explanation). Cruice proposes to substitute vSapbv (" watery ") ; but there seems no reason why we should entirely reject the reading of the Codex, especially as C.'s suggestion breaks the rule of the " more difficult " reading being the preferable.
5 Pa<ri\tiav — kingdom or kingship.
6 The Codex reads €?*•«/ Sjrjo-oSs eVbp. Can this possibly be a glossed and broken-down remains of 'low Ztrjtrap (lao Zeesar) ?
Far from Thy Breath l away she 2 wanders !
She seeks to flee the bitter Chaos,3
And knows not how she shall pass through.
Wherefore, send me, O Father !
Seals in my hands, I will descend ;
Through ^Eons universal will I make a Path ;
Through Mysteries all I'll open up a Way !
And Forms of Gods will I display ; 4
The secrets of the Holy Path I will hand on,
And call them Gnosis." 6
CONCLUSION OF ANALYSIS
All this may have seemed, quite naturally, contemptible foolishness to the theological prejudices of our worthy Church Father ; but it is difficult for me, even in the twentieth century, not to recognise the beauty of this fine Mystic Hymn, and I hope it may be equally difficult for at least some of my readers.
But to return to the consideration of our much overwritten Source.
This Source is plainly a commentary, or elaborate paraphrase, of the Eecitation Ode, " Whether, blest Child of Kronos," which comes at the end (§ 30) and not, as we should expect, at the beginning, and has probably been displaced by Hippolytus. It is an exegetical
1 Cruice thinks this refers to the breath of God's anger ; but surely it refers to the Holy Spirit of God ?
2 Sc. the soul, the " wandering sheep."
3 Gf. " the bitter Water," or " Darkness," or " Chaos," of the Sethian system in Hipp., Philos., v. 19 ; and see the note to the comments following Hermes-Prayer v., p. 92.
4 The Logos in His descent through the spheres takes on the
Forms of all the Powers.
6 Is it, however, possible that the original Hymn had Naas
Nefar and not Gnosis Tvuffiv ?
commentary written from the standpoint of the An thropos- theory of the Mysteries (? originally Chaldaean), the Man-doctrine.